Winter Stations exhibition winners explore "the age of AI" on Toronto beach
A giant hand and an installation clad in mirrors are among the winners of the annual Winter Stations exhibition, which comprises several artworks placed on the Toronto beachfront during the coldest months of the year.
This year's exhibition was made up of three winning installations by international designers alongside two installations by local universities, with a focus on "the boundary of what is seen and what is real in the age of AI".
"This year's theme, Mirage, invited artists and designers from around the world to submit proposals for installations that play with the boundary of what is seen and what is real in the age of AI, and explore public art as infrastructure that gathers people in shared reality," said the team.
The winning installations include work by Berlin-based architectural designer Denys Horodnyak and Enzo Zak 
The pieces were placed along Woodbine Beach, in the city's Beaches neighbourhood.
Working with welder Courtney Chard, Horodnyak and Lux created Chimera, a series of small mirrors with red lids installed on a cubic metal frame.
"The viewer encounters a shifting constellation of selves, where the delicate imbalance between control and security becomes apparent," said the designers.
Embrace by Cuthbert is comprised of two open hands made of thin panels painted black on one side and rainbow on the other.
According to Cuthbert, the installation is "an invitation to behold and to be held" and "gain a vibrant new perspective".
Specularia, by Andrew Clark, who works under the name Tornado Soup, contains several square openings that look out onto Ontario Lake.
Contained within a long, lumber frame, one of the openings shows an unobstructed view, while the others show "pieces of the surroundings, stripped of context, confusing distance and direction".
Students of the University of Waterloo and Toronto Metropolitan University also created installations for the exhibition, which sit between the winning entries.
Crest, by the University of Waterloo team, was created with a network of criss-crossing plywood to resemble a pile of driftwood washed up on the beach. The forms shift and change as visitors approach.
Toronto Metropolitan University similarly played with distortion with Glaciate, which is made of a wooden frame and polycarbonate panels filled with water from the neighbouring lake.
A lifeguard stand is located at the centre of the installation, and as the changing temperature outside freezes and thaws the water inside the panels, the lifeguard chair is subsequently hidden and revealed.
Previous Winter Station exhibitions featured a pavilion in the shape of a bee colony in 2022 and a giant seashell in 2021.
The photography is by Joel Gale
Winter Stations is on show at Woodbine Beach until 30 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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